1. Field of Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate generally to embroidery. More specifically, at least one embodiment relates to an apparatus, system and method for generating a stitch file corresponding to an embroidery design selected by a user.
2. Discussion of Related Art
It is common for individuals and businesses to select apparel and other items with custom embroidered designs, (for example, a logo, a team name, etc.) which they distribute or sell to family, friends, employees and customers, for example, to generate goodwill, build a brand, and/or market a business product or service. Often, the embroidery design is personalized with the recipient's name. As with many other types of commercial transactions, there is an interest in allowing users to select and purchase these items on-line where the items include the selected custom designs/logos. Existing processes, however, do not provide an effective on-line ordering process for customized items that include embroidered text and/or designs because the conversion of an image selected on-line to a stitch file is a relatively complex process.
Modern embroidery machines employ software to stitch an embroidered item including selected text and design elements onto apparel or other material, e.g., a hat, a shirt, a jacket, a wall hanging, etc. Generally, the embroidered design is included in a digital stitch file which is provided to the embroidery machine for processing and execution.
Each machine may include multiple stitch heads each with a plurality of spools that may each hold a different color thread. A separate item of apparel or other material is secured in the stitching region adjacent one or more of the stitch heads and the embroidery machine processes the digital stitch file and operates one or more of the stitch heads to create the embroidered design on the items of apparel. Some embroidery machines that include multiple stitch heads are “gang operated” because the material located at each stitch head is simultaneously moved in identical x-y coordinates while being stitched.
One known approach to the on-line ordering of embroidery designs requires the real-time generation of a digital stitch file corresponding to the text and/or design before the user can finalize and order the design. In practice, the approach is not suitable for on-line selection and automatic execution of an embroidery design order. In particular, the on-line order process is delayed using current approaches because an embroidery stitch file must be created for each design before the image of the completed design can be presented to the user in their Internet browser (e.g., rendered). That is, the generation of the embroidery digital stitch file and the rendering of the graphic image both occur prior to the user finalizing and ordering the embroidered design. Such an approach generally results in poor quality embroidered designs because current approaches attempt to convert user selected images (e.g., graphic files) to digital stitch files for execution by a stitching machine. That is, some current approaches employ a process in which an image file is “digitized” to generate a digital stitch file.
Further, known approaches provide only a single style of text per font size which are based on keyboard lettering. This keyboard lettering and the corresponding stitch pattern are then “force-fit” into embroidery orders and when stitched do not provide a high quality finished look desired by customers.